Researched
Antiretroviral therapy (HIV)
A combination of drugs turned HIV from a death sentence into a manageable chronic infection.
Open in the interactive tree →AIDS was identified in 1981 and the virus in 1983-84. The first drug, AZT, helped only briefly because the virus mutated; in 1996 combinations of three drugs ('highly active antiretroviral therapy') suppressed the virus, and AIDS deaths in wealthy countries fell sharply. At the end of 2025, 32.1 million people were on treatment according to UNAIDS, and the same logic of combination therapy guides treatment of hepatitis C and cancers.
Prerequisites
- Chemotherapy1942
- Reverse transcriptase1970The first HIV drugs block reverse transcriptase
- Genetic engineering1973
- HIV identified1983Drugs and tests could only be built after the virus was isolated in 1983
Unlocks
Sources
More in Medicine · Digital Age
- HPV vaccine2006
- Checkpoint Immunotherapy2014–2018